Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Demographic Trends In Boston: Some Implications For Municipal Services, Margaret O'Brien

New England Journal of Public Policy

The City of Boston is gaining in population during the 1980s, after several decades of loss. During the current decade and beyond, population trends will bring increases in the number of children, adults between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four, and those aged seventy-five and over, along with declines among the older teenagers and college-age population, the more mature adults, and the younger elderly. A recent analysis of the income distribution indicates that while there were more well-to-do residents in Boston in 1985 than there were in 1980, there were also more poor and near poor. Average family income has …

Seniority And Affirmative Action: The Shadow Of Stotts, Drew S. Days Iii

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

The purpose of this paper is to discuss why I think the Reagan administration's avowed commitment to helping only "actual victims" of racial discrimination retards rather than advances the cause of civil rights. I make reference in my title to "seniority" and "the shadow of Stotts" because the current administration is relying upon Supreme Court decisions having to do with seniority, particularly its 1984 opinion in Memphis Firefighters v. Stotts, to justify a wholesale attack upon race-conscious remedies, not only in employment but in education and public contracting as well.

Boston School Desegregation: The Fallowness Of Common Ground, Robert A. Dentler

New England Journal of Public Policy

This essay scrutinizes the book by J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, to assess whether it presents a valid and reliable account of the issues, people, and events it chronicles. The substantive core of the book is shown to be the politics of Boston public school desegregation. The parts played by the three families in this event are dramatically portrayed but cannot be corroborated and are not interpreted. The parts played by five major policy leaders, when tested against other evidence, are found to be distorted, questionable legends woven in …

Race And Class In American Race Relations Theory, 1894-1939, Vernon Williams Jr.

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

The purpose of this essay is to identify the origins of the debate between Wilson and Pinkney. The period covered focuses on the years 1894 to 1939 - from the publication of Franz Boas's "Human Faculty as Determined by Race" in the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1894, to the publications of Robert E. Park's "The Nature of Race Relations" in 1939. It is my argument that the parameters of the discussion regarding the progressiveness of race relations in the United States were defined during these years, and that all current theories are but …

Getting Power Back: Court Restoration Of Executive Authority In Boston City Government, Marcy M. Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article chronicles some of the events that occurred when a state and a federal court attempted to disengage from active jurisdiction over two Boston public systems: the public schools and the Boston Housing Authority (BHA). It makes three proposals which, if enacted, would help to keep the courts out of day-to-day management of municipal operations. It also makes some generalizations about the court-agency interplay which are relevant to the postremedial phase of institutional reform litigation. The author uses the term restorative law to describe this court-controlled process of returning power to the executive branch.

Community-Based Housing: Potential For A New Strategy, Rachel G. Bratt

William Monroe Trotter Institute Publications

While the housing problem in the United States has changed since Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed that "one-third of the nation is ill-housed," it has by no means disappeared. For most low-income people, and to a lesser extent for moderate income people, housing still presents formidable problems.

Academics and housing analysts recognize four major aspects of the housing problem: affordability (ratio of housing costs to income), adequacy (including quality and overcrowding), neighborhood conditions, and availability. Over the past decade, the nature of the country's housing problem has undergone some important transformations.

Until ten years ago the phrase "housing problem" conjured up …

The Demography Of New England: Policy Issues For The Balance Of This Century, George S. Masnick

New England Journal of Public Policy

New England's rapidly aging population, its traditionally low fertility rate, and the fact that net migration from other regions and abroad should continue to be close to zero means that only very slow population growth will characterize the region for the balance of this century. Nevertheless, New England's demographic metabolism is exceptionally dynamic: (1) the numbers of different age groups are growing at very different rates; (2) a redistribution of population is occurring from the southern to northern tier states; (3) within each state population is dispersing into non-metropolitan areas; and (4) metropolitan areas, both central and suburban, are quickly …

The Quality Of Public Education In Boston: An Assessment And Some Recommendations, Karen Seashore Louis

Center for Survey Research Publications

Motivation, self-esteem, achievement and the development of tolerance and acceptance of others -- these are the goals that most, like Crain, et al., have come to accept as legitimate objectives of public schooling. Yet, there is substantial opinion that the public schools of Boston have been unable to achieve standards in these areas that are acceptable to the public, the students who occupy the schools, and the professionals who run them. For example, a recent survey of Boston residents' attitudes toward the schools indicates that approximately 3/4 of all respondents -- irrespective of race, or whether there were any school …

Black And White Perceptions Of Quality Of Life In Boston, Floyd J. Fowler Jr.

Center for Survey Research Publications

It is difficult, probably impossible, to compare objectively the seriousness of racial problems and tensions in Boston with those in other cities. However, there can be little doubt that there is a widespread perception that relationships between blacks and whites in Boston constitute a serious problem. Specifically, one image is that Boston is a community in which blacks are not welcome and in which they are treated with unusual hostility and abuse. Another image is that whites in Boston are unfairly maligned as racists and bigots.

In 1980, following several race-related incidents, The Boston Committee was formed. The purpose of …

"A Nursing Home ... Not For My Folks!": Families Caring For Their Elderly At Home, Scott A. Bass, Richard Rowland

Gerontology Faculty Publication Series

This booklet is the second in a series of reports about elderly issues. The first, entitled "The Elderly Have Spoken: Is Anybody Listening? The Impact of Fuel Costs on the Elderly," documented the impact of rising fuel costs on the elderly in Massachusetts. Each of the series reports seeks to capture the actual words, expressions, and feelings of elderly people and their loved ones. For the most part, the interviews were conducted by interviewers who are themselves 60 years old or older. We find that this age match provides greater insight and openness to the problems confronting the …

Job Satisfaction Of Home Care Case Managers: An Evaluative Look At One Home Care Corporation, Scott A. Bass, Richard Rowland

Gerontology Faculty Publication Series

Senior Home Care Services — Boston III, Inc. is a six year old private non-profit corporation with an annual budget of nearly $5 million. The agency currently delivers services to approximately 2,500 functionally impaired senior citizens per month in the Boston neighborhoods of South Boston, East Dorchester/Mattapan, East Boston, Beacon Hill, West End, North End, Charlestown, and South Cove. Over 5 7% of the case management staff has worked at the agency less than one year and 92.9% of the case management staff has worked at SHC for less than two years. The high turnover rate is well known to …

The Elderly Have Spoken: Is Anybody Listening? The Impact Of Fuel Costs On The Elderly, Scott A. Bass, Richard Rowland

Gerontology Faculty Publication Series

This report contains the findings of a study carried out by the Gerontology Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston concerning the effects of the escalating fuel costs on the lives of the elderly who must pay for their own heat. Through the use of an interview format known as "modified critical incident" technique, a team of mostly elderly students spent several weeks during the winter of 1980 eliciting responses from more than 100 elderly individuals from throughout the greater Boston area. Not surprisingly , this study has revealed a number of profound impacts that the radical turn of economic …

Worcester Model Cities Resident Attitude Survey, Else Wiersma, Floyd J. Fowler Jr., Center For Survey Research, University Of Massachusetts Boston, The Joint Center For Urban Studies Of The Massachusetts Institute Of Technology And Harvard University

Center for Survey Research Publications

In January of 1972, the staff and resident representatives of the Worcester Model Cities neighborhood contracted the Survey Research Program to work with them to conduct a survey of neighborhood residents. The purpose of the project was to collect data that would assist those in the Model Cities area to systematically measure residents' perceptions and feelings, to identify problems and needs, to plan programs, and, perhaps, at a later date to have a basis against which to measure change.

The project, as it was designed and as it was carried out, was a joint effort. A committee of residents and …